home sweet home: bathtub gone bad
Our 1950s home has a retro bathroom that reliably gets a strong love or hate reaction. I mean, everybody has an opinion about those green tiles. We’re keeping them and running with the black/white/mint combo. (Listen, the bathroom is the least of our worries).
One of the first things I did after we bought our house was run out and buy a new white shower curtain for this bathroom. (What’s cheaper and more satisfying than a new shower curtain? Not much). But when I climbed into the tub to hang the shower curtain, the bottom of the tub was kind of squishy. I’m not gonna lie, my first thought was, “Oh, a gel bathtub. I could get use to that, I guess.” And then I squished around a little more and realized that was sploshing water I was hearing under my feet. And I started to panic, just a little. A few google searches later (“my bathtub is gellin”) and my husband and I learned that we were standing on a plastic bathtub liner (below), which probably cost upwards of $1000 and covered the original porcelain tub.
So I called a tub refinishing company who came out and gave us a super reasonable estimate ($450) for removing the liner and refinishing the tub underneath.
(Above, what was underneath the liner, after some serious scrubbing. Gross. Below, freshly fixed and painted).
Isn’t the shape great?! The only bummer was that we learned that underneath the broken white floor tiles in our bathroom, there is another layer of green floor tiles. Who puts floor tiles on top of floor tiles? Sigh.
For now our bathroom is getting put on the back burner. I’m just happy to be able to take a hot bath again!
Responses to “home sweet home: bathtub gone bad”
Michelle
March 7, 2011 at 9:27 amI love the mint tiles, of course that is my color but I think you can make that space super cute. It already is!
Ali
March 7, 2011 at 9:31 amYAY! MORE GREEN FLOOR TILES!! THIS IS THE BATHROOM THAT KEEPS ON GIVING!! :)
Anna
March 7, 2011 at 10:12 amWhat a lovely end product. Is this re-glazed or a different process?
ellie
March 7, 2011 at 10:16 amyep, it’s re-glazed!
Jamie
March 7, 2011 at 10:53 amWhy people would cover up such a great tub is beyond me. Your bathroom is super cute by the way!
Deedrie
March 7, 2011 at 11:02 amOn behalf of old bathtubs everywhere I say “thank you!”
I hate it when I’m watching a DIY show and they just rip out great old tubs and throw them in a dumpster or worse they bash them with sledge hammers. Your tub looks amazing!!
Jane Flanagan
March 7, 2011 at 11:37 amThat’s amazing! I had my tub refinished in my current apartment and it was one of the big impact things. I love these art deco style tubs especially!
Noodles and Waffles
March 7, 2011 at 11:56 amI love the shape of the original tub and the detail on the outside. How sad that someone would hide it. Your elbow grease really paid off here….it’s beautiful.
Trude
March 7, 2011 at 1:57 pmWow the tub looks great! Oh, the joys of home ownership… :) And seriously, who DOES put tile over tile??
Judy Hall
March 7, 2011 at 2:18 pmGorgeous! Any ideas what to do with my 1950′s porcelain tub that has yellow hard water stains the DEFY removal?
ellie
March 7, 2011 at 2:26 pmHi Judy, If you scrub too hard you’ll damage the porcelain, so if it’s really bad I’d suggest calling a tub refinishing company… ours was DEFINITELY not a DIY project, they used some harsh chemicals that I would have never touched myself, not to mention it required some serious skill to get rid of the stains, cracks, and holes in our tub. It took two men about 8 hours of work, in all!
Vicky
March 7, 2011 at 4:01 pmWhy cover such a wonderful bath?! The green wall tiles are gorgeous – I’ve never heard of tiling over tiles though!
Mervi
March 7, 2011 at 4:05 pmThe shape is awesome, I agree. I wish I had a bathtub myself… The tiling over tiles sounds like something someone stupid and lazy would do. I’ve heard it happening, though not often (fortunately).
Cozbi
March 7, 2011 at 4:34 pmI loved reading and seeing the photo story with. We just bought our own 1939 home and are encountering very similar surprises! Live, learn and love ;) that is our motto!
cute little bathroom though! heart the mint :)
jessica c
March 7, 2011 at 5:56 pmcute! Its amazing how just cleaning up an old space revitalizes it. Can you do the tub refinishing on a cast iron tub?
ellie
March 7, 2011 at 6:08 pmjessica – yes, you can! i saw pictures of that on the brochure :)
Caroline
March 7, 2011 at 7:33 pmOh my goodness. We have the exact same tub!! I am looking for someone to reglaze ours and I live in your area. Would you mind divulging the names of the folks who reglazed your tub?
liza
March 8, 2011 at 5:28 amGreat Reno!!! We lived with the SAME turquoise colored tiles and I must say I miss them! It was fun living Retro for awhile.
two brunettes
March 8, 2011 at 8:15 amthat looks awesome!! We need to do that to ours! Wow. The tile on top of tile happened in our kitchen when we moved!! WTF? What is wrong with people. haha.
wedding jewellery
March 8, 2011 at 10:44 amWow! that bath looks amazing after its refinish, what a fab job they did…and I actually like the mint tiles!
ellie
March 8, 2011 at 10:48 amHi Caroline! We used Bath Brite, 928-4166. They came recommended from a neighbor.
kelly
March 8, 2011 at 1:10 pmCutie, Congrats… oh lord you would not believe what I’ve seen when remodeling peoples homes. It’s amazing really. Love the refinishing job, we had this done to an old sink and if it worked beautifully.
Emily
March 11, 2011 at 11:45 pmi love the green tiles. we have awesome blue tiles in the hallway bathroom in our 1950s house. they’re fantastic!
we also have tiles on top of tiles… actually, i think we have tiles on top of linoleum on top of tiles but it’s low on the priority list!
Nic | Chrome Heated Towel Rails
May 16, 2011 at 10:50 amI can’t believe the transformation of your bath tub! And i like the mint tiles too!
Sherisa (L'elephant Rose)
May 23, 2011 at 5:14 amOMG that bathtub is bitiching! Why do people cover beautiful things with really ugly run of the mill things? I just don’t get it. And I love the color of those tiles.